National Day, Black Consciousness, Zumbi Day, When Zumbi, National Park

Zumbi dos Palmares - Black Consciousness Day in Brazil

By Ekaterina Zhdanova-Redman1 On November 20th, a very special holiday is celebrated in Brazil. This day is known as the National Day of Black Consciousness, or Zumbi Day. To learn why this day is important, you need to know a story from many hundreds of years ago. This story features a young man named Zumbi and his homeland called Palmares.2 In the 15th century, explorers from Portugal arrived in Brazil. The Portuguese--and other Europeans--brought with them slaves. These slaves were brought from Africa. The slaves were forced to work very hard for the Europeans in Brazil. Life for the slaves was horrible. The slaves fought against their owners--they fought being brought from Africa, and they fought once they were in Brazil. Because of their fighting, many were tortured and killed. Only a few escaped their owners.3 Some of the few Africans who escaped started their own colony in northern Brazil. This colony was called Palmares, because of the many palm trees found there. The colony was made up of towns formed by escaped slaves. As you can imagine, the Europeans--especially the Portuguese--didn't like this new colony. They believed that the escaped slaves still belonged to them. Therefore, the Portuguese set out to destroy this new colony.